| Afghan president narrowly avoids Taliban bomb in worst violence since collapse of US negotiations Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:15 AM PDT  Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more in two blasts Tuesday - one at a campaign rally for the president and the other in Kabul - with the insurgents warning of more violence ahead of elections. The first attack saw a motorcyclist detonate a suicide bomb at a checkpoint leading to a rally where Ashraf Ghani, the president, was addressing supporters in central Parwan province, just north of the capital, killing 26 and wounding 42. Just over an hour later another blast also claimed by the Taliban rocked central Kabul near the US embassy. Authorities initially did not give casualty figures, but later said 22 people had been killed and a further 38 wounded. The explosions came after Donald Trump, the US president, abruptly ended talks with the Taliban earlier this month over a deal that would have allowed the US to begin withdrawing troops from its longest war. One of the bombs was detonated near the US Embassy in Kabul Credit: AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi In a statement sent to media claiming responsibility for both blasts, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack near Mr Ghani's rally was deliberately aimed at disrupting the September 28 elections. "We already warned people not to attend election rallies, if they suffer any losses that is their own responsibility," the statement said. An image from the scene near Mr Ghani's rally, roughly an hour's drive north of Kabul, showed the remains of a burnt motorcycle, with a body on top, covered by a blanket and next to a badly damaged police car. Taliban control in Afghanistan Women and children were among the causalities, Parwan hospital director Abdul Qasim Sangin said. The president, who was speaking to his supporters at the time of the blast, was unhurt but later condemned the attack, saying the incident proved the Taliban had no real interest in reconciliation. "As the Taliban continue their crimes, they once again prove that they are not interested in peace and stability in Afghanistan," said Mr Ghani in a statement.
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| Iran charges three detained Australians with spying Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:20 AM PDT  Iran has charged three detained Australians with spying, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, after the reported arrest of a travel-blogging couple and an academic. Two of the Australians were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of military sites, while a third was accused of spying for another country, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters. It was the first official confirmation that Australians have been detained in Iran after the families of three of them said last week they had been arrested in the Islamic republic.
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| UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:35 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports]( "UPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports") Russian border guards have detained two North Korean boats in Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan after one of them attacked a Russian patrol, local media cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying on Tuesday. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast and detained the first vessel, prompting the second one to open fire, the FSB was quoted as saying. Three Russian border guards were wounded in the incident.
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| Las Vegas man faces weapons charge in synagogue, other plots Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:03 AM PDT  A former security guard accused of compiling bomb components and guns to kill people at a Las Vegas synagogue and of drawing up plans to attack a bar catering to LGBTQ customers or a fast-food restaurant has been indicted on a federal firearm charge, court records show. Conor Climo's court-appointed attorney, Paul Riddle, said Tuesday that Climo plans to plead not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday on the one-count indictment filed Sept. 11 in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Climo, 23, was arrested Aug. 8 and remains in federal custody pending arraignment Wednesday in Las Vegas on a charge of possessing "firearms, specifically destructive devices" found at his home.
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| 'A war zone': Propane explosion kills firefighter, injures 8 others, levels building in Maine Posted: 16 Sep 2019 03:12 PM PDT  A firefighter was killed and eight others were injured when a powerful propane explosion destroyed a new building Monday in Farmington, Maine.
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| Netanyahu's Dangerous Accusations of Anti-Semitism Against HBO Show 'Our Boys' Posted: 16 Sep 2019 03:06 PM PDT  Israel's Prime Minister turned on HBO show 'Our Boys' in his hunt for enemies. That's bad for real efforts against anti-Semitism.
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| Saudi officials knew they were 'exposed' to drone attacks months ago but they weren't able to do anything to stop it Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:06 AM PDT  Drones have been used in attacks on Saudi airports, water facilities, and oil pipelines this year. Leaders knew their country was vulnerable.
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| Manhattan District Attorney Issues Subpoena for Trump’s Tax Returns Posted: 16 Sep 2019 01:06 PM PDT  New York state prosecutors, led by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have subpoenaed President Trump's accounting firm for records of his tax returns for the last eight years, according to a report from the New York Times.The subpoena is part of an investigation into hush-money payments made by the president to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump's lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, was convicted in federal court of breaking campaign-finance laws after paying $130,000 to Daniels, and received a three-year prison sentence.Daniels claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 shortly after the birth of his son, Barron Trump, and received the payment in exchange for her silence on the matter.The Manhattan D.A.'s office is looking into the possibility that the hush-money payments broke New York state law in addition to federal law. It was unclear, however, why prosecutors subpoenaed documents from as far back as 2011.The subpoenaed tax returns include Trump's personal returns as well as those of his company, the Trump Organization.Congressional Democrats have been trying for years to force Trump to reveal his tax returns, and have subpoenaed six years of those documents from the Treasury Department. The president has fought back by challenging the subpoena in federal court, effectively tying up the release of the documents.
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| French boy, 10, dies 8 years after supermarket burger poisoning Posted: 16 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  A French boy aged 10, who fell gravely ill in 2011 after consuming a beef burger from supermarket discounter Lidl that was infected with E.coli bacteria, has died of complications stemming from his poisoning, the family's lawyer said. The boy, Nolan, died on Saturday "as a consequence of his poisoning", the family's lawyer Florence Rault told AFP on Sunday. Rault said that Nolan had not "ceased to suffer" after consuming the burger in June 2011.
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| GM stops paying for health insurance for striking union workers; talks continue Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:18 AM PDT  General Motors Co shifted health insurance costs for its striking workers to the United Auto Workers union as its members walked the picket line for the second day on Tuesday. The UAW on Monday launched the first company-wide strike at GM in 12 years, saying negotiations toward a new national agreement covering about 48,000 hourly workers had hit an impasse. This year's talks between the union and GM, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) were expected to be tough, with thorny issues such as healthcare costs, profit-sharing and the use of temporary workers on the table.
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| House of Ukraine's former top central banker set on fire Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:58 AM PDT  The home of Ukraine's former central bank chief has been burned to the ground, the third chilling incident involving the banker over the past few weeks. Police said in a statement Tuesday that they are investigating a suspected arson attack late Monday on the house of Valeria Gontareva outside the capital, Kyiv. Gontareva has said she has received threats from Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who lost his PrivatBank to a government nationalization that was carried out while Gontareva was at the helm of the central bank in 2016.
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| Exclusive: Russia carried out a 'stunning' breach of FBI communications system, escalating the spy game on U.S. soil Posted: 16 Sep 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Russian compounds and diplomats in the U.S. played key roles in a counterintelligence operation that stretched from the Bay Area to the nation's capital, according to former U.S. officials.
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| 20 arrested, 18 charged in Minneapolis beatings Posted: 16 Sep 2019 09:59 PM PDT  Minneapolis police chief, assault victim talk to Fox News about arrests in downtown beatings; Matt Finn reports.
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| Couple reveal they are raising child 'gender neutral' and haven't even told close family their baby's sex Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT  A couple have decided to keep their baby's sex a secret from close relatives in a bid to avoid gender bias. Hobbit Humphrey, 38, and Jake England-Johns, 35, refer to their 17-month-old child, Anoush, with the pronoun, "they", and dress them in both girls' and boys' clothing. The married couple, who are members of the climate action group, Extinction Rebellion, have been accused of "virtue signalling". However, they are keen to let their child, Anoush, choose their own gender identity when they are old enough, because they wish for them to "grow into their own person". Close family members have not been told the child's sex and grandmother, Camille, only found out when she changed a nappy. The couple, who live on a houseboat in Keynsham, Somerset, discussed the ways in which they could challenge gender bias after discovering Ms Humphrey was pregnant. Mr England-Johns told the BBC's Inside Out: "The neutral in gender neutral refers to us trying to behave neutrally towards our child rather than trying to make them neutral." "Eventually, we decided that we wouldn't tell people whether they were a boy or a girl … in order to create this little bubble for our baby to be who they are," Ms Humphrey said. However their decision has sparked some controversy. Rosa Freedman, Professor of law conflict and global development at the University of Reading, said: "While this is an individual case the worry would be that in the unlikely event many parents took up this way of parenting, that the NHS, government, and service providers would not know what to plan for in the future as they would not know how many boys or girls exist." "Parents concerned about gendered social construct would do better to fight patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia rather and try to virtue signal to their friends and communities so they can get praise." The couple have said that the reaction to their decision has been mixed. However Mr England-Johns said: "But over a year in, it's clear that we are serious and gradually people have got used to it. "Although, that still doesn't stop some pretty confused looks from old ladies in the park when they come up to us and ask if they're a boy or a girl. It can take a bit of explaining. "We are quite good now at holding space for people's discomfort in us going, 'Oh well, actually we don't tell anyone, we're not telling anyone for now."
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| A flight from Vietnam to South Korea was delayed for 11 hours after the pilot arrived at the airport and realized he had lost his passport Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:13 AM PDT  T'Way Air said it was investigating the incident and how the pilot lost his passport, and that it put passengers in a hotel and fed them breakfast.
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| NYC to Allow 1.1 Million Students to Skip Class for Climate Protests Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:49 AM PDT  New York City public schools will allow 1.1 million students to skip classes Friday in order to attend the planned "climate strike" ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit.The protests aim to press the Summit for immediate action to stop climate change, and are geared specifically for the participation of young people.Reactions to the decision have been ecstatic in some cases, as protest organizers contemplate what they hope will be the largest climate change protest in the history of the U.S."This completely changes things, and it's our doing," Xiye Bastida, 17, a senior at Beacon High School in Manhattan, told the New York Times. Some teachers at her school were planning to accompany students to the protests even before the school district granted permission to do so."We're not against the school system," she said. "We need the schools to work with us because our larger goal is to stop the fossil fuel industry."
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| Earth warming more quickly than thought, new climate models show Posted: 17 Sep 2019 07:59 AM PDT  Greenhouse gases thrust into the atmosphere mainly by burning fossil fuels are warming Earth's surface more quickly than previously understood, according to new climate models set to replace those used in current UN projections, scientists said Tuesday. The new calculations also suggest that the Paris Agreement goals of capping global warming at "well below" two degrees, and 1.5C if possible, will be challenging at best, the scientists said. "With our two models, we see that the scenario known as SSP1 2.6 -- which normally allows us to stay under 2C -- doesn't quite get us there," Olivier Boucher, head of the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace Climate Modelling Centre in Paris, told AFP.
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| A Florida couple was arrested on DUI charges. Then they had sex in the back of a police car Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:53 PM PDT  Aaron Thomas, 31, and Megan Mondanaro, 35, were arrested in Florida after they had sex in the back of a patrol car, according to police.
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| Israel's Netanyahu appears to suffer setback in exit polls Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:25 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell short of securing a parliamentary majority with his religious and nationalist allies in national elections Tuesday, initial exit polls showed, setting the stage for a period of coalition negotiations that could threaten his political future and clear the way for him to be tried on corruption charges. Initial results posted by Israel's three major stations showed challenger Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party tied or with a slight lead over Netanyahu's Likud. While the results do not guarantee that Gantz will be the next prime minister, they signaled that Netanyahu, who has led the country for over 10 years, could have trouble holding on to the job.
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| Divided Fed set to cut interest rates this week, but then what? Posted: 16 Sep 2019 10:04 PM PDT  Deep disagreements within the Federal Reserve over the economic outlook and how the U.S. central bank should respond will not stop policymakers from cutting interest rates at a two-day meeting that began on Tuesday. An oil price spike after attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend added to the list of risks facing an economy already slowed by ongoing trade tensions and global weakness. At one end of the Fed's large boardroom table sit St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who are expected to argue for a steep reduction in borrowing costs to counter low inflation and an inverted Treasury yield curve.
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| California woman rescued by cops who stopped her abductor over vehicle violations Posted: 15 Sep 2019 09:46 PM PDT  Northern California cops free a woman who says she was being held captive. The bruised and upset woman told police she had been kidnapped four days prior. They began questioning her after they arrested the driver of the vehicle she was a passenger in.
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| Putin Loses Legendary Approval-Rating Crown to His New Neighbor Posted: 16 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Vladimir Putin takes great pride in his sky-high approval rating. But with Muscovites rising up and a new government instilling hope in Ukraine, he's being outshone by the president next door, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.It's still early days for the administration in Kyiv. While pushing a raft of popular reforms, Zelenskiy, 41, remains in his honeymoon period, while cries he's too close to a local billionaire grow louder.The 66-year-old Putin, meanwhile, is approaching two decades as Russia's leader. Economic expansion has fizzled out, and along with it the spending largess that kept the masses happy.The last time his popularity sagged meaningfully, Putin famously got a boost after annexing Crimea from Ukraine and fomenting a war between the two former allies.Zelenskiy has a long way to go to match the 89% rating Putin reached back then.To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Langley in London at alangley1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Gregory L. WhiteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A flight in India was delayed when a swarm of angry bees covered the cockpit window and attacked staff who tried to remove them Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:54 AM PDT  Firefighters were eventually brought in to get the plane, with 135 passengers and Bangladesh's information minister on board, to take off.
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| Is Russia's Crazy Status-6 Nuclear Weapon a Great Idea or a Really Bad One? Posted: 16 Sep 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Let's take a look.
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| Trump may have dug himself into a hole with his Iran policy Posted: 16 Sep 2019 12:28 PM PDT  Washington and Tehran entered yet another phase of sabre rattling and high tension over the weekend.Following attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities that disrupted the global market, the Trump administration quickly pointed fingers at Iran.
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| US sanctions Italy, Panama and Colombia firms over Venezuela ties Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 16 companies linked to Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, an associate of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move is the latest US escalation of sanctions targeting the inner circle of Maduro, who is grappling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of Venezuela's 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
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| A North Carolina sheriff allegedly plotted the death of his own deputy because the officer had a tape of him making 'racially offensive' comments Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins urged someone to kill a deputy, saying, "The only way you gonna stop him is kill him," an indictment says.
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| Teen activist to lawmakers: Try harder on climate change Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:45 PM PDT  Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg offered a blunt message to Congress on Tuesday as she brought her campaign for urgent action on climate change to the U.S. Capitol. "I know you're trying," she told Democratic senators at an invitation-only forum, "but just not hard enough. Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey thanked the 16-year-old activist for her advice and her activism, which has gained worldwide attention by inspiring a series of protests and school strikes, including one set for Friday.
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| Wisconsin brothers charged with operating counterfeit vaping cartridge operation Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:15 AM PDT  Tyler and Jacob Huffhines ran an operation that cranked out 3,000 to 5,000 counterfeit vaping cartridges each day, authorities say.
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| California woman who dreamed about swallowing engagement ring woke up to realize she actually did Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:19 AM PDT  A California woman had her dreams come true earlier this month — although probably not in the way she would have liked.
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| Belgian F-16s scrambled to intercept 2 Russian nuclear-capable supersonic bombers over the Baltic Sea Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:23 PM PDT  The Belgian Air Force intercepted two Russian Tu-160 supersonic, nuclear-capable bombers at close range in Baltic airspace.
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| Houthis Have an Arsenal of Ballistic and Cruise Missiles (Some from North Korea) Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:01 AM PDT  Know this: The Houthis inherited from the defunct Yemeni military a large number of Soviet-exported Scuds as well as North Korean-made Scuds called "Hwasong-6s.
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| The High-Risk Strategy That Could Hand Democrats the White House Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:16 AM PDT  Democratic voters live in clusters — but there's a way to take advantage of that
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| Qatar announces new residency scheme for investors Posted: 16 Sep 2019 12:50 PM PDT  Qatar announced Monday it will grant residency to foreign investors for the first time, state media reported, the latest in a series of measures designed to diversify the economy. Foreigners investing an unspecified level of "non-Qatari capital" in the economy will be eligible for renewable five-year residency permits, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported. Real estate developers active in Qatar's property market will also be eligible for the scheme, under the new law.
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| 20 dead as truck falls off cliff in southern Philippines Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:12 AM PDT  Twenty villagers were killed and 14 others were injured when the truck they were riding in lost control and fell off a cliff Tuesday in a remote mountain village in the southern Philippines, police and the Red Cross said. Provincial police chief Joel Limson said the truck was negotiating a downhill road in Tboli town in South Cotabato province when its brakes apparently failed and plummeted down a ravine, pinning 15 people to death. Police, Red Cross volunteers and villagers retrieved the 15 bodies from the wreckage at the bottom of the ravine.
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| Biden's 1960s gang fight yarn: Son of 'bad dude' Corn Pop confirms his father knew Dem frontrunner Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:27 AM PDT  The saga of Joe Biden's mysterious story from the 1960s, in which he and a man called Corn Pop almost battled with a knife and a chain but ultimately did not, may have been confirmed.Mr Biden has told the story of a 1962 confrontation with a man who frequented a public pool in Wilmington, Delaware where he was a lifeguard several times, including in his book. But a video of him retelling it at an event in 2017, at the pool's dedication ceremony after it was renamed for him, resurfaced earlier this week.
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| UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission]( "UPDATE 1-U.N. Security Council overcomes Chinese veto threat to renew Afghanistan mission") The United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed on Tuesday to extend a U.N. political mission in Afghanistan after last-minute talks overcame a Chinese threat to veto if there was no reference to Beijing's global Belt and Road infrastructure project. "To our regret a few countries refused to keep the text of consensus previously agreed," said China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun, describing the adopted resolution as a technical rollover. The resolutions mandating the mission in 2016, 2017 and 2018 all included a reference welcoming and urging efforts like China's Belt and Road initiative to facilitate trade and transit, but in March the United States and some other council members said they could no longer accept that language.
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| Triple threat: Tropical Storm Imelda swamps Texas, Humberto nears Bermuda and TD 10 forms in Atlantic Posted: 17 Sep 2019 05:16 PM PDT  While Hurricane Humberto nears Bermuda, there's flooding in Texas due to Tropical Storm Imelda, and Tropical Depression 10 is spinning up in the Atlantic
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| Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Rhinos Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT |
| China Might Not Actually Be Able to Hold Its South China Sea Bases but That's Not the Point Posted: 16 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT  What does Bejing plan to do with them?
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| Video shows burglars kick in California family's front door, before being scared away Posted: 16 Sep 2019 04:50 AM PDT  Two masked-man kicked in the front door of a Pleasanton home in an attempted home-invasion -- and it was all caught on surveillance video.
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| N. Korea demands security guarantees for nuclear talks Posted: 16 Sep 2019 01:18 AM PDT  North Korea on Monday demanded the United States provide security guarantees as a precondition to resuming deadlocked nuclear talks, dampening hopes for progress at a working-level dialogue expected in the coming weeks. Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have been gridlocked since a second summit between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in February ended without a deal. The pair agreed to restart working-level dialogue during an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas in June, and Pyongyang last week offered to hold those talks in late September, a move the US said was "encouraging".
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| Wisconsin man accused of making THC cartridges charged Posted: 16 Sep 2019 02:55 PM PDT  A Wisconsin man suspected of running an illegal operation to manufacture vaping cartridges flew to California last month to get THC oil in bulk to fill thousands of cartridges to sell, prosecutors said Monday in charging documents. Authorities in Kenosha, Wisconsin, arrested 20-year-old Tyler Huffhines on Sept. 5 after parents tipped off police when they saw their teenage son with one of the cartridges. Prosecutors say Huffhines employed 10 people to fill the cartridges with THC oil at a condo he rented with a stolen identity.
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| Boy Scout leader sang naked in front of kids, and organization failed to investigate: Lawsuit Posted: 16 Sep 2019 12:03 PM PDT  A Boy Scout leader who was accused of singing naked in front of several young boys was not investigated by his troop despite multiple complaints.
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| EXCLUSIVE-Pence rebuffs Solomon Islands PM after nation cuts ties with Taiwan Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:51 PM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-Pence rebuffs Solomon Islands PM after nation cuts ties with Taiwan]( "EXCLUSIVE-Pence rebuffs Solomon Islands PM after nation cuts ties with Taiwan") U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has declined to meet Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare after the nation cut ties with Taiwan in favor of China this week, a senior U.S. administration official said on Tuesday. Sogavare had asked Pence to meet during a phone conversation in July to discuss development partnerships, the official told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
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